Do you even need a website?
The honest answer, which nobody selling websites will give you: for a lot of local trades, a well-kept Google profile does most of the job, and a website is the second step rather than the first.
When a website genuinely pays off
- Your work needs explaining. Services that take a paragraph rather than a line — consulting, planning, anything bespoke.
- You want to be found for what you do, not only where you are. A profile ranks locally; a site can rank for the problem you solve.
- Bookings or enquiries should run through you, not through a platform that owns the customer relationship.
- You are selling something considered. B2B clients check the site before they call. For them it is not optional.
- You serve two language communities. A site is where you can address both properly, which no profile field lets you do.
When it can wait
If you run a walk-in local service — a salon, a small food business, a trade that lives on emergency calls — and the profile is complete with photos and reviews, your time is usually better spent on reviews and reachability than on a site. A neglected website helps nobody; an empty one actively costs trust.
What belongs on it
- What you do and for whom, in the first screen, without scrolling.
- How to reach you — phone, address, hours, on every page.
- Proof — photos of real work, reviews, references.
- Prices or a price basis. Even a range removes more hesitation than it creates.
- Imprint and privacy policy. Legally required in Austria, and their absence is noticed.
Common questions
Should my website be in German, English, or both?
If you have one, German is the version that has to exist — that is what your local customers search in and read. English alongside it is worth the effort when a meaningful share of your customers are international, which in Vienna is often true. What does not work is an English-only site for a local trade: it quietly tells the neighbourhood the business is not for them. If maintaining two versions is unrealistic, keep a German site and one clear English page rather than a half-translated site that goes stale.
What does a small business website cost in Austria?
Anywhere from almost nothing to several thousand euros, and the expensive end is rarely the right call for a business that is starting out. A modern site builder gets you a credible one-page site for the price of a domain and a monthly subscription. An agency makes sense once the site has a specific job to do — bookings, a shop, a lead process — rather than simply existing.
Is a website still worth it if I have a Google profile?
For many local trades, the profile does most of the work and the website adds the rest: what you do in detail, prices, your story, and a place you fully control rather than rent. The order matters more than the choice — profile first, site second. If you only ever do one of them, the profile is the one that pays.
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Marketing practice, not legal advice.